The Dark Story Of The Gilded Age: How Dearborn Station Became Chicago's Ghost

Описание: This Is How Dearborn Station Died Standing begins in 1885 when five railroads built Chicago's oldest surviving terminal at Dearborn and Polk Street—Romanesque Revival design by Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz with 170-foot clock tower and 700-foot train shed. This Is How Dearborn Station Died Standing for 86 years serving millions—soldiers departing for two world wars, immigrants heading west, Santa Fe trains to California. But disaster struck in 1922 when fire destroyed the romantic Flemish Gothic peaked rooflines, replaced with flat roofs that stripped away Eidlitz's original vision. This Is How Dearborn Station Died Standing reveals the shocking truth: it wasn't killed by cars or airplanes—it was murdered by the railroad companies themselves who deliberately sabotaged passenger service to focus on freight. They stopped investing, ran obsolete equipment, made ticketing difficult, and scheduled trains inconveniently. April 30, 1971: Grand Trunk Western's International Limited departed—final train. May 2, 1971: Santa Fe's trains arrived from California—operations ended. Amtrak chose Union Station, abandoning Dearborn completely. The building sat empty through the 1970s. Designated Chicago Landmark 1976. Restored 1985 as retail/office space with townhouses replacing the demolished train shed. Today it stands—but as a shopping center, not a train station.

🚂 Topics: 1885 opening, Cyrus Eidlitz architect, 1922 fire destroyed romantic rooflines, railroad sabotage of passenger service, 1971 closure, Amtrak consolidation, 1976 landmark designation, 1985 adaptive reuse

📍 Dearborn & Polk Street, Chicago (1885-1971)

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